The Vulcans Women Soccer team tied the Seton Hill Griffins in an early season PSAC Conference battle last Wednesday.
Head coach Pete Curtis persisted with his 4-3-3 formation from games past. However, with his team facing two games per week now, the sixth-year manager modified the team sheet to rest players. From left to right, Kaitlin Bickhart, Ashley Venezia, and Bella Gilberto provided for the California press. Kaylee Elwood linked the front three with defensive midfields Reagan Bromiley and Lorina Romeis.
Caelin Thomas, Katey Bern, Hannah Morton, and Izabella DeGlopper completed the Vulcans’ backline. Team captain Emily Ouimet, with the fifth best save percentage of 79% in the entire PSAC Conference, stood in goal.
In the first fifteen minutes, Junior Venezia led Bickhart and Gilberto on a stifling squeeze against any Seton Hill attempt to play out of the back. Previously a defender, Bickhart has adopted her new winger role with a summer-haze ease.
Gilberto screened off her defender as she received a pass from the hooking Elwood, and quickly laid the ball off to Romeis right on the halfway line. Romeis then initiated one of the more protracted give-and-go passes witnessed at Philipsburg in recent memories. Romeis skipped a harmony onto the intelligent left-flank run of Venezia. Venezia surged into Seton Hill’s box, chopped the ball past the last defender with her first touch, and in defiance of logic, unselfishly rolled the opportunity back to the player who started it all four passes ago. Romeis’s shot kissed the crossbar and the stalemate goodbye. The Vulcans’ best home goal of the season was a delightful team effort.
Seton Hill won a corner in the 20th minute. Griffin Junior Mikayla Moyer placed the ball down on the painted intersection of the corner arch and the Vulcan goal line. Moyer raised her arm, eyeballed the far post, and served.
Griffin’s Emma Rain upset the home crowd by scoring, leading to a 1-1 tie.
Following the midweek tie, the Vulcans improved to 2-2-1 with a one-goal victory at Clarion on Saturday. California also hosted Pitt-Johnstown on Wednesday, Sept. 20.
